Infinite Loop —

Running Windows 7 under OS X: Ars reviews VMware Fusion 3

VMware has released the latest version of the popular Mac virtualization …

64-bit Native Application and Kernel Support

I've been running my Mac Pro with the 64-bit kernel (even with the earlier RC1 build of VMware Fusion 3), and it has never kernel panicked. It's a rock, and in the course of running Fusion you wouldn't know it's any different from previous versions if it weren't shown in the Activity Monitor:

Don't be confused by the missing "64-bit" next to the VMware Fusion application—it's the vmware-vmx process that actually does the work of the virtual machine and it's 64-bit.

Note from the system requirements that you don't need 10.6 running the 64-bit kernel to run 64-bit client OSes or 64-bit VMware applications. VMware will run as a 64-bit process under OS X 10.5.8 since there are libraries that handle 64-bit applications. There is a lot of confusion among people new to the Mac platform about this since they are used to the Linux and Windows mantra that "you need a 64-bit OS to run 64-bit applications or access more than 3GB of memory." This may sound like a ridiculous claim about OS X, so any unbelievers can read all about it here. I ran Maxwell Render as a 64-bit process in 10.5 for a long time before 10.6 came out and I've seen it take as much as 8GB on that 32-bit OS.

Really, there isn't a lot to say about the 64-bit kernel in action—and that's likely the best review it can get. The changelist mentions "faster disk and graphics performance" on Snow Leopard, but it's been so long since I ran 2.0 that I don't remember feeling massive gains in snappiness. Some people have reportedly said it feels faster. Anyway, it's zippy and you'd never know it was doing some seriously tricky things at the kernel level with relatively new code within a new OS.

Cores as Cores

Version 3 no longer shows CPU cores as distinct CPUs. This may sound trivial, but in previous versions, it meant that the only way you could get access to those four CPUs was with a server-grade version of Windows (read: $$$). Now that those cores are reported correctly to the guest OS, Windows desktop variants can access them all:

Windows XP Pro running four cores. I think threads two and four like each other.

There isn't any special setup needed to access them—just set the processor count in the VM's options and you're good:

The limit is still four cores total.

If you're running a desktop Windows VM and need some extra oomph for multithreaded apps, this will definitely make Fusion 3 worth the price of upgrading.

Other Changes Worth Mentioning

Some minor new things in version 3 include the ability to select a specific network adapter for bridged networking (with optional IPv6), and the ability to finally override the Ethernet MAC address of the virtual adapter on the UI. Before, it had to be done by editing the VM's .vmx files with a text editor. There are a lot of non-hacker reasons to fiddle with a MAC address, so it's nice to see this added to the Network section of the VM options. If you were a student who bought an educational version of a program like Maya that is not transferable and node-locked to the Ethernet address of the machine it was installed on, being able to change the MAC address to match that of your old PC will let you run it. This is a common licensing scheme so it's only going to help legitimate users... hack the planet!

New administrative tools

Further blurring the line between server and desktop features, VMware Fusion 3 has a VNC Server accessible at the interface level. This feature was actually in version 2 but it also had to be enabled by editing the .vmx file with these lines:

RemoteDisplay.vnc.enabled = "TRUE" RemoteDisplay.vnc.port = "5901"

The port is customizable, so it's easy to make sure it doesn't overlap with the host Mac's default VNC port, and each VM can have its own distinct port. The VMware VNC server is especially handy if you're using your iPhone as a client, since you can have a nice small window for the VM and it won't load your whole dual 1920x1200 monitor setup:

The only complication is that if your VM is closed, you'll have to use the command line to open it since the VNC server only starts when the VM loads. In the ultimate nerd test of the VNC server, I used the Screen Sharing app from my MacBook Pro in a caf� while tethered to my iPhone and VNC'ed into my Windows 7 VM at home over dyndns. When the screen successfully loaded, I stood up, flexed Mr. Universe style and yelled "I AM FROM THE FUTURE!!!!!," and sat back down to finish my latt�... my latt� from the future.